devlyn's Profile

I always mix 2 of the Yellow Tail whites for my white sangria (and mix everything up in a growler): pinot grigio and the chadonnay. Since I like to add a bit of kirsch or brandy to mine, too, they blend well with that as well as fruit. Delicious!

A group of friends in my old city started having a SoupFest annually years ago. I actually won the first annual fest... we had a commemorative t-shirt made up and everything. Since most of us have moved onto other places, we have started SoupFest in our respective cities. I'm finally taking the plunge this year, for the love of soup -- I have 3 weeks to perfect my recipes! Ours are far less formal affairs. Since my husband and I collect pint glasses, we have plenty to use instead of bowls... we make cup coozies out of old socks (just cut off the foot part). We simply set up the soups in the kitchen to keep them warm, and everyone can serve him or herself. Simple placards will be used to mark the soups. People who don't like being "fancy in the kitchen" bring cheese and crackers and the like. It's an awesomefuntime. :D

Ooh, this sounds good. Do you know if it will be available digitally? I don't do paper magazines any more...

I add salt and chipotle powder to fruit/nut mix when I put a few jars together. This signifies that this fruit/nut mix is MINE and not my partner's. ^_^
Just for a sample, this is what I usually put in my fruit/nut mix:
almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds (all home-roasted and lightly salted), raisins, currants, and sometimes dried cranberries. Shake up with the chipotle powder - about a Tb per quart of mix. So good!

I'm eating leftover chicken curry, made with Massaman curry paste. Oh, and it has lots of veggies in it, too. Nom!

Try pure cranberry juice for a good non-citric acid flavor. I also recommend Bragg's liquid amino acids (you can get it at Whole Foods and Co-Ops) - you can use it in place of soy for marinating tofu. I also like a bit of it in my typically soy-based dressings for extra umami punch. Good luck!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot sauce... It's made here in Portland, and is my standard go-to hot sauce. It's very spicy, but the flavor is beyond awesome. We've done a few tastings (6+ sauces against each other), and Aardvark always comes out on top.
For Asian dishes, I go for Sriracha, and I love Tiger sauce on tuna sandwiches (really, it's fantastic!). I can only use the vinegar-heavy sauces (Tabasco) for southern food, which I rarely cook.
You can order Secret Aardvark online, too!

Also from PDX here - Uwajimaya carries mostly Japanese food, so there are more options available for Japanese staples like miso, tofu, furikake, shoyu, mirin, etc., whereas Fubonn is more typically Chinese and Vietnamese food. If I need a massive bottle of Kewpie or a few different kinds of miso paste, I hit up Uwajimaya, and if I just need some standard sesame oil, azuki beans, sriracha, and the like, I'll go to Fubonn. Both are great stores. There's rumor of Uwajimaya building a store in the Old Town/Chinatown section of downtown Portland, too, which would be really really cool, as both (current) Uwajimaya and Fubonn are out at the opposite edges of town, and I live right in the middle.

There are so many condos and apartments in PDX with this same kitchen setup. To tell the truth, I've turned down buying/renting places like this because of the small kitchen. Yours looks really cute, though! It just doesn't have the space I need... garg.

Garlic is growing so I can get some scrapes early, and the windowbox herbs are in. This weekend: lettuce, transplanting the radish starts, onions, and carrots. Yum! Oh, and getting the fence in.